As CBS 2’s Amy Dardashtian reported Sunday evening, the restaurant letter-grading system was a signature accomplishment of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. But Leonard de Knegt, owner of Jerry’s Café at 90 Chambers St. in TriBeCa, said the grading system has put him on the verge of going out of business.

“Over the past three years, we’ve probably spent over $30,000 in fines,” de Knegt said.

He said health inspectors exercise wide discretion, issuing exorbitant fines for minor offenses – some as high as $2,000.

“I got a fine once for $300 for a dead strawberry,” he said.

But that is all expected to change now. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has worked out an agreement between the restaurant industry and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to lower fines to $200 for many minor issues.

City Council Poised To Modify Restaurant Grading System To Lower Some Fines

WCBS 880's Ginny Kosola Reports

“So what’s that kind of a violation? Not properly storing two sanitized utensils, and having five flies in a food-prep area during the fall and the winter,” said Quinn. “It is long-term not in the financial interest of the city to have a fine structure that puts businesses out of business.”

Under the new fine system, 60 percent of all violations will result only in the minimum $200 fine, and many of the most commonly issued violations will be see their resulting fines cut by a range of 15 to 50 percent, according to a news release.

City Council Poised To Modify Restaurant Grading System To Lower Some Fines

1010 WINS' Gary Baumgarten...

The legislation Quinn has proposed to modify the letter-grade system would provide restaurant owners with a bill of rights pamphlet before any inspections and allow restaurant owners one ungraded inspection before any violations are issued.

Further, any restaurant with a fine point total of less than 14 after its initial inspection has been addressed will not have to pay any fines for that inspection. And if a restaurant is hit with a violation for structural irregularity such as a sink in the wrong place, but can prove that the configuration has never resulted in a fine during previous inspections, the restaurant will be ordered to fix the problem without paying any fine, the release said.

Altogether, the changes will reduce the total fines collected by more than $10 million per year, the release said.

Last year, the city collected $52 million in fines, compared to $33 million the year earlier, according to the New York Times.

Many restaurant owners were relieved upon hearing about the planned changes. But the manager of an A-rated Subway sandwich shop on West 34th Street, told 1010 WINS’ Gary Baumgarten the amount of the fine is not the issue. He said restaurants are kept in check by the letter grading system itself – which is not going anywhere.